1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of packet processing and, more particularly, to receipt and transmission of packets on multiple interfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
As computer systems and other electronic systems become increasingly networked, packet processing has become increasingly important as well. Generally, packets are used to communicate among networked computer and electronic systems. Thus, each networked system must receive and transmit packets, and must process the packets directed to that system to determine what is being transmitted to that system.
Typically, each system includes one or more interfaces on which packets are transmitted and received. Additionally, each interface generally includes a dedicated DMA engine used to transmit received packets to memory in the system and to read packets from the memory for transmission. If a given system includes two or more packet interfaces, the system includes DMA engines for each interface.